Want your students to chat about holidays and leisure? Here’s a background that could make the activity more engaging by transporting learners from the classroom to a holiday swimming pool.

How to use it

At the end of a unit on holidays, tourism or leisure, tell your students that they are relaxing by the pool while on holiday when they unexpectedly bump into a classmate. Put them into pairs and ask them to write a natural conversation between the two classmates—small talk is welcome too. Give some suggestions such as:

What type of holidays do you find more relaxing?

How did you spend your last holiday?

A beach holiday or a culture holiday?

Do you enjoy budget holidays? What types of advantages do they have for you?

And so on….

Encourage them to use some of the new vocabulary from the unit, and give them time to practise with their partner.

Project the role-play background onto the whiteboard. The students should continue their conversation until the woman wearing a blue bikini -quite ungracefully – dives into the pool. Her dive signals that their time is up.